In continued efforts by the United States to ramp up this new Cold War against China, the U.S. recently gifted its Asia-Pacific ally $500 million in new military aid to act as a deterrence to China.
On July 30th, the Pentagon published a summary of the official visit with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The Department of Defense (DoD) reported:
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III emphasized the United States’ commitment to further deepening ties with key allies throughout the Indo-Pacific after meeting with top officials today in Manila, the Philippines.
Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken held high-level talks with their Philippine counterparts, Secretary for Foreign Affairs Enrique A. Manalo and Secretary of National Defense Gilberto C. Teodoro, as part of the fourth Philippines-United States 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue.
During the meeting, the leaders outlined measures to build upon the recent strides in the U.S.-Philippine alliance to include advancements in technology and cyber cooperation as well as steps to further enhance economic resilience through cooperation in key sectors including renewable energy, agriculture and food security.
Austin and Blinken also highlighted their work with Congress to allocate $500 million in foreign military financing from the 2024 Indo-Pacific Security Supplemental Appropriations Act and $125 million outlined in next year’s budget request for Philippine infrastructure across seven sites under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.
The two countries also reaffirmed their commitment to the U.S.-Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty and “underscored the importance of working even more closely with likeminded allies and partners, including Australia and Japan,” Austin said during a news conference following the talks.
This is part of what I’ve described as the new convergence in the Indo-Pacific, and we can see that new convergence right here. The United States, the Philippines, and our other allies and partners are operating together more closely and capably than ever, and we’re working together to ensure a free and open region.
He said
The meeting was held as part of Austin’s 11th trip to the Indo-Pacific which also included meetings alongside Blinken with Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara and Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa in Tokyo on Sunday.
While in Tokyo, Austin and Kihara met with the South Korean defense minister for a trilateral ministerial meeting, held for the first time in Japan. The exchange is a key component of the U.S., South Korea and Japan security cooperation dialogue.
After returning to the U.S. later this week, Austin and Blinken will host Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong for this year’s Australia-U.S. Ministerial Consultations.
The series of engagements mark a continuation of President Joe Biden’s strategy of sustained engagement in the United States’ priority theater of operations.
“I know that it’s easy to focus on the crisis of the day, but just look at what our strategy has achieved in the Indo-Pacific over the past 3 1/2 years,” Austin said yesterday during a joint press conference with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, Jr., at the Pentagon.
The secretary noted that the U.S. has nearly doubled its military construction investments in the Indo-Pacific over the last fiscal year and has continued to make significant improvements to its force posture in the region.
The U.S. has also led the way in uniting a broad network of partners focused on solving key regional challenges.
“Our ties with Australia are stronger than ever,” Austin said. “We’ve improved our relationships with Vietnam, Singapore, Papua New Guinea and many more.”
The DoD published a follow-up post the next day highlighting more comments made by Austin.
During the visit, Austin toured a Philippine Navy facility and several defense industrial sites as a way to highlight opportunities there for defense industrial cooperation by the United States, the Philippines, and other regional allies and partners.
“This is a really transformative time for our relationship, our alliance here,” Austin told reporters. “You’ve seen us announce a number of key initiatives. Yesterday you heard us talk about the $500 million in [foreign military financing] opportunity here that we’re going to provide to the Philippines. We’re excited about that, and that’s going to help them modernize their military a bit further. [And] today we saw some of our industrial base companies out here working together to create additional capability, and that’s also very, very exciting.”
During a U.S.-Philippines 2+2 ministerial dialogue on Tuesday, Austin and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with their counterparts in Manila to discuss opportunities to strengthen regional peace, stability and prosperity.
As part of those discussions, the U.S. committed to $500 million in foreign military financing to help with modernization of the U.S.-Philippines alliance and, among other things, enhance the capabilities of the Philippine military and coast guard.
Also, part of Austin’s visit to Indo-Pacom was a similar 2+2 dialogue in Tokyo, with Japanese counterparts, where the U.S. announced it would transition U.S. Forces Japan, or USFJ, to a joint force headquarters. The new joint force headquarters will be commanded by a three-star officer and will serve as a counterpart to Japan’s own Japan Self-Defense Forces Joint Operations Command.
“We’re at the very beginning of this evolution and we’ll work with our Japanese counterparts to see how to evolve things as we go forward,” Austin said. “The three-star command that we’re standing up is focused on the command and control of U.S. forces. And the three-star command in the JJOC [JSDF Joint Operations Command] will be focused on Japanese forces. The fact that we’re working together will give us a lot greater agility and get a lot more capability, quite frankly.”
Austin said the conversion of USFJ to a joint force headquarters will provide greater control over planning combined missions with Japanese forces. With the conversion, it is expected the headquarters will retain its name, USFJ, and will also retain its three-star leadership.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
Of course, more money for everyone else except the homeland and the people. What else is new?
The U.S. is determined to launch and fight a new Cold War against China, which in all likelihood will turn into an actual war eventually; and both political parties have made it clear that the U.S. will fight is warm, attempt to ramp-up military production and try to force a regime in China; though these wishful dreams at best.
Mark 13:7 And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet. [8] For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
For more details on what this means for the U.S. and the Philippines, check-out this interview below:
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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I was just listening to this on Petrova’s channel today. The Philippines is an ultra-idolatrous, superstitious nation. I won’t be shocked if it suffers a lot of death and destruction soon albeit not completely in my opinion (not yet at least, prophecy-wise). The nation might end up joining BRICS or become China’s, Lord only knows. The country has always been within the clutches of the US, including cultural influences through hollywood/mainstream media garbage.
(Funny that she mentioned the US sending the Philippines second-hand weapons. Apparently, America has been doing the same with Ukraine regarding armor. I saw the video a few weeks ago but I couldn’t find it unfortunately.)
The Philippines has old U.S. Coast Guard and old U.S. Navy ships basically old crappy outdated U.S. armaments. It does not have any strength to withstand any invasion or raids whatsoever. Chinese and Russian armament are state of the art and have very effective weapons to eliminate any enemy. I pray that my country will be protected from these hard times and totally free from any country’s influence and control. The mind control is still very strong and real. People will not take action until it is too late to realize they become cannon fodders.
Sad but true.
How will the left of the people’s tax dollar without the consent of the people go on for , Jacob? And what can be done to stop it?
So sad- my people are become tools for America’s proxy wars, again.
I hope my people can be free from the influences of foreign entities and become totally independent- It seems as if everyone wants a piece of Philippines due to its strategic location in Asia.